“Thank you for agreeing to do this, Mr. Leister,” said the face on the screen. The man, who couldn’t be much older than me, shuffled his papers and took of his glasses to look directly at me.

“Of course,” I replied. “Please forgive me for talking to you from my bed, but these days I seem to be unable to move much.”

“Not at all! I understand you are still recovering in hospital, hence my initial surprise when you replied to my email. In fact, we could postpone the interview until you are back in full health.”

Many journalists had gotten in touch with me after the incident, though I had no idea how they had obtained my personal phone number or email address. All of them showed the same discourse acting close and friendly, but in between the lines of their messages I could always sense their selfishness. They all wanted the same thing. They wanted a story. An interview that would surely boost their careers, or so they thought.

I promptly rejected all of them, except for one. The man who was calling me from what I assumed was his home office, a journalist named James Gustin. His email didn’t seem to hide second intentions: he wanted to share what had happened with the rest of the world, not to gain a prize, but as a warning.

“No, that’s fine,” I finally said. “What would you like to know?”

“Well,” he said. He inspected his extensive notes while grabbing a notebook and a pen. “Why don’t we start from the beginning? Tell me what brought you to that shore.”

My girlfriend Bellinda and I had been wanting to go on a trip, just the two of us, for some time. Due to our quite demanding jobs, so it was always complicated to adjust our schedules in order to plan for something like that. However, as luck would have it, we had managed to each take a week off just after the beginning of spring. We would finally be able to leave all of our work aside for a week and just be with one another.

There were several options that we had been looking into, but Bellinda was adamant on going to the beach. “To enjoy the sun, the sea, and not doing anything for a whole week!” she used to say. To be completely honest, I didn’t really care what our destination was, and was a bit distracted. I had been planning to propose for some time now, and that trip was the perfect opportunity I had been waiting for. When we agreed on our destination, we quickly bought the plane tickets and booked a hotel room near the beach, so as to seal the deal.

We also looked into some activities that we could do over there, should we ever feel the need to do something more than just relaxing. One evening, we were sitting on the couch, each one searching for information on our respective tablets.

“Hmm, how about… diving?” asked Bellinda. She was looking at a pamphlet from the hotel. “I’m sure it would be fun and the waters over there are crystal clear!”

“To be fair it’s something I’ve always wanted to try at least once, but I think we need to undergo some kind of training at the hotel first.”

“Oh, look at this, Ryan! They also do activities at the swimming pool of the hotel. Like aqua-gym, aqua-yoga, aqua-dancing…,” she poked me with her elbow and looked at me grinning.

In turn, I looked at her with a serious face. “Now you are just mocking me,” I said and carefully moved aside her long dark hair to kiss her.

“Have you found anything interesting on your end?” she asked.

“Nothing that you haven’t found already. You are too good at searching.”

But I had been looking into other things myself. In particular, I was trying to find the perfect spot to propose, something romantic and quiet.

Time went by and we finally arrived at our hotel. The temperature and humidity were so different from what we were used to that we were both looking forward to changing into our swimsuits, which seemed more comfortable and appropriate for those conditions.

“Good morning and welcome!” a woman greeted us from the reception. “How may I help you today?”

“Hello! We had a reservation for Ryan Leister,” said Bellinda.

The lady started typing in her computer and quickly brought up a window with our reservation details. “Ah, here it is. One room for a week, right? I’m afraid the room won’t be ready for about another hour. If you wish, you could leave your luggage here with us and proceed to have lunch at the restaurant.”

We agreed and went to the restaurant, taking a table at the terrace. It was a buffet kind of restaurant, so after inspecting the different displays available, each of us took a plate and filled it with whatever caught our eye. When we reached our table, I overheard the family sitting at a table close to us discussing about some strange weather they had had for a couple of days already. I thought I understood something about dark clouds and sudden drop in temperature, but only for a short while.

I didn’t think much of it, but in retrospect maybe I should have.

After lunch, as promised, we were given the key to our room. When I opened the door, we were greeted by the smell of clean bed linen with a tint of sea salt. The bed was so huge, and seemed so soft, that I couldn’t help but let my full body weight fall on top. I closed my eyes.

“Oh no, you don’t!” said Bellinda. “We have to go to the beach!”

“Just a small nap… please?”

My pleas were answered by her throwing my swimsuit to my face, signifying that there was no way I was going to get my way. Nevertheless, I knew well she had been looking forward to come to the beach, so I got changed without a complaint. After applying sunscreen, grabbing our towels, and a book each, we made our way to the beach area in front of the hotel.

Apparently, each hotel had a designated area were they had installed hammocks under some parasols for exclusive use of their clients. To reach it, we just had to leave through a gate next to the pool bar and cross a small road that barely had any traffic at all. The sea breeze was so refreshing, especially since we spent so much time cooped up in our respective offices.

It didn’t take us long to find a couple of available hammocks. We lay down on top of our towels and begun reading for a while. It is important to remember that we had just had a copious lunch, so neither of us felt like jumping into the water just yet. However, it also meant that, after ten minutes or so, I could barely manage to keep my eyes open. My mind drifted away.

I dreamt. I dreamt about being alone, without Bellinda. I dreamt about losing everything we had together.

I woke up, panting heavily, not knowing how long I had dozed for. Yet, when I looked to my side, where Bellinda had been previously, the only things I could find were her towel and her book. I got up and frantically searched for her with my eyes by the shore, without any luck. Until I heard a voice from behind.

“Ryan? Are you alright?” Bellinda had gone back to the hotel bar to grab a couple of drinks for us and looked at me with worry.

“Yeah, sorry… Just had a bad dream.”

As we sat back down, opening the drinks she had brought, we noticed the sunlight had started to fade and, in its place, dark clouds had taken over the clear blue sky we had been enjoying up until that point. They were so dark, that it almost seemed like the night had arrived earlier. People all around us were murmuring. Distracted by the sky, none of us noticed the sea until it was too late.

Someone screamed as a four meter wave approached quickly. I instinctively turned to Bellinda and grabbed her, in an attempt to shield her, and braced for impact. It didn’t take long. The wave broke on top of us, forcing us on the ground and dragging us uncontrollably. When I felt the pressure of the water fade, I opened my eyes to check on Bellinda.

“Bel?! Bel?! Are you okay?!”

She looked at me, but didn’t have time to answer. Someone screamed again and I knew another wave was coming. I braced again.

Another wave broke. And another. And another.

At some point, while one of the waves was dragging us around, my strength failed me and I couldn’t grab Bellinda anymore. I tried to call to her, to scream, but the water had me trapped. I felt dizzy, and the last thing I saw before losing consciousness was her drifting away from me.

“When I finally woke up, I was in the ICU,” I explained. “It was only after several days that they allowed me to transition to a regular room. Doctor Anne Morand, who was taking care of my follow-ups, said that I had suffered extensive damage on my back, so it would take me a long time to recover, even if I probably won’t make a full recovery.”

James looked at me with sympathy. “I am sorry to hear that.”

I sighed and gave him a slight smile, then turned to look at the other bed next to mine in the hospital room. On top of it, a woman with long dark hair slept soundly, her hands grasping a small book over her chest. Bandages covered most of the bruises on her body, and she carried a simple ring on her right hand.

“If only this is the price I have to pay,” I said. “Then it was worth it.”